Atlantic haven er et testbed for planeters sygelige oceaner

iklædt dykkerudstyr eller olieskind og gummistøvler, et hold af videnskabsmænd og aktivister tilbragte uger i det sydlige Atlanterhav, udholdende storme og hakkende hav for at tjekke op på et sted, næsten ingen har hørt om.

Deres mission:At overvåge et undervandsbjerg for spor af global opvarmning og plastikforurening - og undersøge virkningen af ​​et 12 år gammelt forbud mod trawlfiskeri.

Forskere med Greenpeace sejlede tusinde kilometer (600 miles) nordvest for Cape Town til Vema Seamount, en af ​​de mest bemærkelsesværdige, endnu dårligt kendt, træk ved den blå planet.

Det vulkanske bjerg rejser sig en kolossal 4, 600 meter (15, 000 fod) fra havets afgrund - næsten lige så højt som Mont Blanc, det højeste punkt i Europa.

Dens koniske top, eroderet til en flad top af bølger over tusinder af år, når kun 26 meter (85 fod) fra overfladen.

AFP-journalister sluttede sig til den 30 besætning, videnskabsmænd og forkæmpere i 10 dage af deres tre uger lange udforskning.

Ombord på forskningsskibet Arctic Sunrise, specialiserede dykkere delte vittigheder, mens de tog knaldorange og sorte tørdragter på, spændt på luftcylindre og kørte gennem sidste kontrol af højopløselige kameraer.

De sprang ud gennem pilotdøren, forsvinder i det dybe blå vand i omkring 45 minutter - et ritual to gange om dagen, vejret tillader det.

Under bølgerne, dykkerne tog prøver og registrerede en opgørelse over havets liv.

Havet tilflugtssted

Vema er en havoase - dens lavvandede top er badet i sollys, muliggør alger, kelp og sorte koraller til at vokse, som igen trækker fisk og krebsdyr.

Dykkerne dukkede op igen, opstemt.

"Der var masser af fisk omkring os, bare svømme rundt om os, i en stor cirkel. Det var helt fantastisk at se. Smukt!" sagde den hollandske dykker Sander Jansson.

Vema - opkaldt efter et fartøj, der opdagede det i 1950'erne - ligger i internationalt farvand.

Lidt mere end én procent af havområderne, der ligger uden for nationale jurisdiktioner, nyder godt af en form for international beskyttelse, ifølge FN's Ocean Action-hjemmeside.

Vema er heldig at være et af de meget få områder på dybhavet, der nyder godt af et sådant skjold.

I 2007 et mellemstatsligt fiskerividenskabs- og fiskeriforvaltningsorgan, Organisationen for fiskeriet i det sydøstlige Atlanterhav (SEAFO) forbød bundtrawl på Vema og andre havbjerge.

Nogle af arterne ved Vema har tydeligvis blomstret siden da.

"Der er så meget liv dernede, " sagde havbiolog og ekspeditionsleder Thilo Maack.

"Der er krebs, der er meget tang, der er en masse svampe og fisk af enhver art".

Han tilføjede:"Dette er bare et perfekt eksempel på, hvad der sker, hvis vi forlader naturen på egen hånd i en vis periode, selvom den var overfisket, det vil genopbygge".

De mere solrige udsigter strækker sig endda til Tristan-stenhummeren - en art, der to gange blev drevet til næsten udryddelse for at imødekomme efterspørgslen efter fisk og skaldyr i Østasien.

"Hvem siger, at der ikke er hummere dernede?" spøgte den tyske dykker Pascal van Erp, da han trådte tilbage på dækket efter sit første dyk.

Da strømmen var for stærk til, at dykkere kunne gå i vandet, forskerne affyrede en undervandsdrone og sad inde i en blå skibscontainer på skibets dæk, overvågningsskærme, der sender videooptagelser tilbage.

Need for protection

Marine conservation organisations are pushing for ocean havens to be vastly expanded.

Greenpeace has mounted a pole-to-pole Arctic-to-Antarctic expedition to lobby the UN to come up with an international legally-binding treaty that protect at least 30 percent of the world's deep oceans from human activities and industrial fishing by 2030.

The UN is negotiating new policies and these which should be finalised at a global conference early next year.

Francois Engelbrecht, professor of climatology at South Africa's University of the Witswatersrand, said the plight of the oceans was like the fight against climate change—both had to be addressed at a planetary level.

"The entire Earth system is connected, it is a coupled system, and changes in one part of the world sooner or later affect many other parts of the world, " han sagde.

"So the international efforts to protect the oceans and to mitigate climate change are in fact an effort that requires tremendous international cooperation."

Climate peril

The oceans play a vital role in the grim calculus of global warming.

De er, på samme tid, a shield against warming, a future accelerator of it and a victim of it.

By absorbing a quarter of manmade carbon dioxide (CO2) and more than 90 percent of the heat generated by greenhouse gases, oceans avoid huge amounts of atmospheric warming, says the UN's top scientific panel, the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC).

But warmer oceans means rising sea levels, as well as stored heat that will ultimately be released to the atmosphere—climate-altering mechanisms that may function for centuries to come.

"A breakdown in climate will ultimately impact on our oceans, " Bukelwa Nzimande, 29, a South African activist.

"They act as carbon sinks, they hold lots of wildlife which captures the carbon, at the same time they absorb excess heat that would ideally be felt by us as humanity."

Higher sea temperatures and acidification caused by CO2 absorption are widely feared because of their impact on marine biodiversity, although this remains poorly understood.

One of the tasks at Vema was to look for evidence of whale migration and compare that with past years.

By comparing patterns of migration times, scientist hoped to make deductions over any changes to currents and feeding grounds.

Another priority was to look for discarded plastic, which is emerging as one of the biggest threats to marine wildlife.

Plastic bags can be swallowed by marine mammals, and small species absorb minute plastic particles that then accumulate up the food chain.

The UN estimates that 640, 000 tonnes of fishing equipment is discarded around the oceans each year.

Despite the general pristine state of Vema and the ban on fishing, there was evidence that fishing had taken place at Vema.

Divers found a lobster pot and video footage from a drone showed pieces of abandoned fishing nets, known as ghost gear.

Life at sea

There were more than 30 crew, scientists and activists aboard the Arctic Sunrise, a 45-metre (147-feet) Norwegian-built ice breaker.

They hailed from South Africa, Tyskland, Holland, Belgium and Britain, among other nations.

They shared small cabins equiped with bunk beds, complete with guard rails for the stormy days when the ship swayed violently from side to side.

"Even if my employer today says there's no more money to pay me a salary, I will continue doing what I'm doing, " said deckhand Barry Joubert, 39, who quit his job at a game reserve in Parys, South Africa five years ago to join Greenpeace.

South African-born captain Mike Fincken, 55, spends six months of the year away from his seven-year-old son in Wales.

One of his deck assistants is Tuleka Zuma, a 31-year-old mother of an 18-month-old toddler back in South Africa's southeastern KwaZulu-Natal province.

Celine Desvachez, a 27-year-old Belgian boat pilot, said she cannot "find any meaningful way of living my life" other than doing what she did.

"Actually my personal battle is when I go off the ship, " hun sagde.

© 2019 AFP